MOVIE REVIEW: Thriller 'Split' comes together nicely

Like its central premise, “Split” exhibits symptoms of multiple personality disorder, squeezing half-dozen genres into a single movie. One minute it’s a thriller, the next a horror picture, the next a treatise on child abuse, then an issues-based look at mental illness and finally a cerebral game of cat and mouse mixed with elements of superherodom. What in the heck is going on?

I’m not sure, but you don’t need a sixth sense to know the latest discombobulation emanating from the singular mind of M. Night Shyamalan is – if nothing else – a hugely entertaining affair. It neither makes sense, nor plays by its own warped rules, but boy does “Split” get under your skin with its wicked mix of creepiness and humor. I was hooked from the start, when a crazy-eyed man with a can of ether kidnaps three teenage girls in broad daylight outside the King of Prussia shopping mall in Pennsylvania.

Like the girls, the next thing you know we’re trapped in an underground bunker with three cots and a remarkably pristine bathroom. And the victims’ fastidious host demands only that his guests keep their john spotless. And the purveyor of that request is Dennis, who’s really Kevin, but is pretending to be Barry. Or is it Jade? Confused? Join the club. Just know that by any name, the person we’re watching is an enigma wrapped up inside a man with dissociative identity disorder, or DID, And what James McAvoy does with DID is just short of amazing, drifting in and out of the kidnapper’s many personalities with much ease and style. He’s the glue that holds Shyamalan’s dissociate movie together through every head-scratching moment.

Playing multiple roles is every actor’s dream, and McAvoy seizes the opportunity to display his wide range of abilities to make each of his character’s personalities distinct and resonate. He’s even a knockout as a woman in high heels. That would be Patricia, just one of the 23 people fighting for control of the mind of the man we come to know as Kevin. Another is Dennis, who is conspiring with Patricia to wreak evil in paving the way for the emergence of a 24th personality they call The Beast.

We also meet Hedwig, a mischievous 9-year-old, and Barry, the “normal” one who is really into fashion design. It’s Barry who is sending cryptic SOS e-mails to Kevin’s shrink, Dr. Fletcher (a largely wasted Betty Buckley), who he’s secretly hoping will prevent the murder and consumption of the three girls: Casey (“The Witch’s” Anya Taylor-Joy), Claire (Haley Lu Richardson from “The Edge of Seventeen”) and Marcia (Jessica Sula). Much of what we see seesaws between the feeble attempts by the girls to escape and their captor indulging his perversities (he likes to watch young girls dance naked) and meeting on a daily basis with Dr. Fletcher.

We’re also made privy to Casey’s childhood via flashbacks that show her learning hunting and survival skills with her beloved father (Sebastian Arcelus) and creepy uncle (Brad William Henke); scenes that help explain why Casey is more like Kevin than either of them know. This of course is Shyamalan’s ticket to make like Dr. Phil and play irresponsible amateur shrink. This part of the film does not go well. In fact, it bogs it down considerably, especially when talk turns to certain personalities possibly possessing superhuman skills. For longtime Shyamalan fans, they’ll surely recognize such theories from what some call his best film, “Unbreakable.”

And the writer-director is clearly pandering to those followers with his subtle references to his previous film, particularly with a kick-ass twist during the final credits. But even if you’ve never heard of “Unbreakable,” Shyamalan has fun jumping from genre to genre as McAvoy jumps from personality to personality. He even makes room for Taylor-Joy to add to her shooting stardom with a role that allows her Casey to be far more than just another victim. Casey is always the film’s rock, using her brains and intellect to dictate the situation, particularly when she’s dealing with McAvoy’s child-like Hedwig. Alas, her two mates are largely shoved to the side, literally locked away for long periods.

Yet, it doesn’t really matter. Only when the movie’s over do you start to pick it apart and add up the gross implausibilities and coincidences. It’s during it, when you’re under Shyamalan’s hypnotic spell for two hold-onto-your-seat hours that “Split” comes so deliciously together. SPLIT (PG-13 for disturbing thematic content and behavior, violence and some language.) Cast: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula. Grade: B